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Professor Bazbek Davletov now at Sheffield University, UK, reports his research that is featured on the cover of the October 2013 journal Bioconjugate Chemistry. He hopes the drug will cost around £1,000 a year, making it cheap enough for use on the NHS. It is authored by a 22-person team from 11 research institutes, including Lincoln University UK based Dr Enrico Ferrari.

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Dr Ferrari joined the School of Life Sciences in October last year from the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, where he took part in the development of a new way of joining and rebuilding molecules in the research group of Professor Bazbek Davletov who was then at the MRC.

Lincoln University, UK, heralds this promising discovery:

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“Scientists have manufactured a new bio-therapeutic molecule that could be used to treat neurological disorders such as chronic pain and epilepsy.”

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The molecule was able to alleviate hypersensitivity to inflammatory pain.

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“Dr Ferrari, who is one of the lead authors of the study, said: “The toxins were split into parts so they were unable to function. Then later they were reassembled using a ‘zipping’ system so they can operate in a safe way. The re-engineered chimera toxin has very similar characteristics to Botox and is still able to block neurotransmission release, but the paralytic effect is a lot less. We then added a tetanus molecule which targets the chimera to where the pain signals travel towards the central nervous system.””

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“Dr Ferrari added: “Many painkillers relieve the pain temporarily and have various side effects. The selling point of this molecule is that the pain relief could last up to seven months….””

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